Classical

Göteborgs Symfoniker – “The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra will be available to all music lovers on GSOplay. The concerts can be enjoyed for free for anyone on the web or through [their] app – wherever you are.”

All three organizations above provide recordings and live streams of their performances at no-cost year round.

Opera

Metropolitan Opera – “Every day for the duration of the Met’s closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, a different encore presentation from the company’s Live in HD series will be made available for free streaming on the Met website, with each performance available for a period of 20 hours, from 7:30 p.m. EDT until 3:30 p.m. the following day.”

Virtual Museum Tours

Van Gogh Museum– “The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam houses the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) in the world.”

MASP – “The Museu de Arte de São Paulo is a private, nonprofit museum founded by Brazilian businessman Assis Chateaubriand, in 1947, as Brazil’s first modern museum.”

Boston’s Children’s Museum – “Boston Children’s Museum is the second oldest, and one of the most influential children’s museums in the world.”

Uffizi Gallery – “The Uffizi was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de’Medici to house the Granducal Magistratures of Tuscany. “

The J. Paul Getty Museum – “The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center features works of art dating from the eighth through the twenty-first century, showcased against a backdrop of dramatic architecture, tranquil gardens, and breathtaking views of Los Angeles.”

The Art Institute of Chicago – “The Art Institute of Chicago is a world-renowned art museum housing one of the largest permanent collections in the United States. “

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum – “Modeled after a Venetian palazzo, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston houses one of the world’s most remarkable art collections.”

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston– “The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is one of the most comprehensive art museums in the world with a collection that exemplifies the breadth, richness, and diversity of artistic expression, from prehistoric times to modern day.”

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston– “Established in 1900, the MFAH is the largest cultural institution in the region. The majority of the museum’s presentations take place on its main campus, which is located in the heart of Houston’s Museum District .”

National Museum of Natural History – “The Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History virtual tours allow visitors to take self-guided, room-by-room tours of select exhibits and areas within the museum from their desktop or mobile device.”

Digital Libraries and Collections

NASA – If you are interested in space and science, NASA has an e-book collection available to the public for free. Their website also contains multiple educational resources to explore.

International Children’s Digital Library – This online library has over 4,000 children’s books from around the world in a multitude of languages. If you are looking for tales from around the world or if you are learning a new language this is a place to stop by.

The Internet Archive – Not an archive of the internet, but an archive on the internet. It’s a “non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.” Access old radio shows, early computer games, T.V. shows and over 23 Million books.

Project Gutenberg – Project Gutenberg “is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world’s great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired.”

University of Wisconsin-Madison Digital Collections – “The University of Wisconsin Digital Collections (UWDC) contain millions of images, books, maps, recordings, documents, and more from across the UW, Wisconsin and the world.” Enjoy learning more about our state’s past by browsing this collection.

HaithiTrust – “HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.” While many books on HaithiTrust requires an institutional membership, reading online is free.”

Virtual Field Trips

DiscoveryEducation– Take a field trip with Polar Bear researchers, blast off into space at the Johnson Space Center, go behind the scenes with the NFL or any number of behind the scene tours with Discovery Education. Includes teaching guides and curriculum for interested parents and adults.

OK360– Go to Oklahoma and take a virtual hike. When you’re stuck inside with nothing to do and it’s a grey day, enjoy a scenic hike. With 360 views and multiple videos of nature trails in OK, you can learn more about nature in the panhandle state.

360 Cities– 360 Cities is a large collection of panoramic interactive photographs that allow you to virtually travel around the world.

Star Atlas– An online planetarium that will show the stars from any location in the world and where the constellations are in the night sky. The site tells you how far the stars are away from earth, for information on the constellations head here.

Nature Works Everywhere– Take a field trip into nature. Nature Works Everywhere has 11 virtual field trips for multiple age ranges, alongside videos and lesson plans for parents and teachers.

ASU Virtual Field Trips– Arizona State University offers up virtual field trips for high school and college students, covering everything from the Mars rover, prehistoric times to the rain forests.

Mount Vernon– Mount Vernon is the most popular historic estate in America. Come and visit George Washington’s home virtually.

Buckingham Palace – Take a virtual tour of some of the rooms in the Buckingham Palace and learn more about the history surrounding the British Monarchy.

Story Hour Online

Storyline Online– A large variety of children’s picture books read aloud by numerous celebrities. Close Captioned.

Union Square Play– While the little one’s are stuck at home Union Square Play is proving: one offline at-home activity, one children’s class video (live or prerecorded) and one online community event for parents. Everything from singalongs to art projects.

Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems– Join children’s book author Mo Willems live every weekday at 1 pm E.T. or whenever with the recordings as he teaches us how to create. “Grab some paper and pencils, pens, or crayons and join Mo to explore ways of writing and making together.”

Draw Every Day With Jarrett J. Krosoczka– New York Times-bestselling author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka everyday for a drawing lesson. Author of everything from the Punk Farm picture books to the Lunch Lady graphic novels.

Online Book Clubs

Goodreads – Goodreads has thousands of bookclub groups available, where you can discuss amazing books with a community of readers. Goodreads is completely free and provides book reviews, interviews with authors, giveaways and much more in addition to having a place for an online book club.

#ColorourCollections – Launched by The New York Academy of Medicine Library in 2016, #ColorOurCollections is an annual coloring festival on social media during which libraries, museums, archives and other cultural institutions around the world share free coloring content featuring images from their collections.The coloring books from 2020 and previous years remain accessible year-round for free download

Adult Continuing Education

Edx– Founded by Harvard and MIT, edX houses multiple college level course available for free.

Coursera – Coursera offers both free and paid courses online. Certificates are only available in paid courses, but you can still learn something new for free.

Open Culture – “Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community.” This site collects multiple free education resources for anyone to use for free.

Open Yale Courses – “Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University.”

OpenLearn – “Produced by The Open University, a world leader in open and distance learning, all OpenLearn courses are free to study. We offer nearly 1000 free courses across 8 different subject areas. Our courses are available to start right away.”